Roel
by Sylwia Kiley
Summary: A companion collection to Ring of Endless Light, a collaboration posted by my co-author neoko-chan, side stories and such. Requests taken.
1. Of missing persons

It had been two weeks. Two long, frustrating weeks since the case had begun. Two teen girls had vanished from a state park on the St. Croix River. They had been dropped off by their Guardian who had returned around an hour later only for the girls to never show up at the designated meeting place. According to the elderly woman's testimony the plan for the day had been that the girls would spend an hour at the park while she ran some errands. After that she was going to drive them to meet up with a group of friends. Upon a search the picnic basket belonging to the pair had been found, absolutely no signs of trouble except for the empty basket and spread blanket. Searchers covered the surrounding miles wide radius.

With absolutely no results.

The case was by no means cold yet, but if there was no new evidence... well it would be. Detective Welks looked at the photos of the girls again. If the case was declared cold, then in all likelihood these two would eventually be assumed to be dead.

"Welks! C'mon, you said you'd come with us today!"

Sighing she stood and followed her coworker, snatching her jacket as she left. On her desk two school pictures lay. In one a girl with black hair, in the other a blond, both had blue eyes. Underneath were their names;

Honor Rae and Laura Jane.


	2. Of what ifs

When Gandalf had mentioned Dunadain, we were lead immediately to the prancing pony. There in a shadowed corner was a man, tall and sturdy. His dress was simple and his eyes were sharp upon all in sight. Dark hair hung about his face. I watched from loo the door as Gandalf approached him, speaking shortly before Gandalf returned and the stranger came with.

"Solreen, Dagbarad here is one of the dunadain from the far north." I nodded, his face was worn with battles, but his eyes, while still sharp, had softened. When he spoke his voice was deep and strong, but roughened with age.

"I shall care for this one, Gandalf. I give you my word." Was this the man that I was going with? Would this mean that I would part with Gandalf now? We went back to the corner with Dagbarad and as they spoke I listened and watched, the thought of parting from Gandalf was sobering.

But when Dagbarad laid a firm yet gentle hand on my shoulder, I relaxed. It was a familiar action, even if the person was unfamiliar.

It was comforting.


	3. Of an empty desk

Luke sighed as he looked back towards his notebook. The room felt heavy, it was more than just the silence of a classroom working. It was that of an empty desk, fifth row from the door and one back, Laura's desk. It was seventh hour now, the last of the first day of school since she had been declared missing along with Honor. The school had been informed during first hour, but he had known for a day. An entire day. He shook his head, focusing on this Lit Journal was almost impossible. This hour was the only one he had shared with Laura this year, How could he focus with that desk empty, nearly right in front of him?

The entire class was subdued, Sam was sitting in his assigned seat, right behind Laura's. How ironic that he would do that now that she was gone, when he wouldn't when she was there. Tyson was quiet, head bowed over his work, as rare as Sam's current seating place, when he used to be one of the loudest of the class. Hallie was dry eyed but she was hunched down and Luke could see that she wasn't writing. Anthony was unreadable, with his hair covering his face as he stared at his notebook. Brandon looked shell shocked, quiet and still his eyes were dry as well, but his mouth was frozen in a frown.

Luke felt like retching, he had been able to deal while in his other classes. But here? No. he closed his notebook shoving it and his pencil into his backpack. Tossing it over his shoulder he went up to Mr. McCormick, to ask to go to the office. The teacher looked older than Luke had ever seen him, his face looked almost haunted as he nodded for Luke to go. Laura might have bantered with the man to cheer him up, her smirk half turned into a smile as she ducked a bop on the head from their teacher. She might have brandished some random item at him, a threat of it if McCormick didn't smile.

Luke just whispered his thanks and left.

It was the hardest hour of the day for both of them.


End file.
